[B-Greek] John 4:39 MARTUROUSHS
Iver
iver_larsen at sil.org
Sat Sep 20 02:38:47 EDT 2003
> Subject: [B-Greek] John 4:39 MARTUROUSHS
>
> A friend asked me earlier today about the use of MARTUROUSHS in
> John 4:39. It feels in context as though it ought to be
> attributive to GUNAIKOS, but it is clearly in the predicate
> position, and, surprisingly to me, the scribes didn't seem to
> have any trouble with it, because I can't find any evidence that
> any of the mss supply the article with the ptcp. Here's the text:
> EK DE THS POLEWS EKEINHS POLLOI EPISTEUSAN EIS AUTON TWN
> SAMARITWN DIA TON LOGON THS GUNAIKOS MARTUROUSHS OTI EIPEN MOI
> PANTA hA EPOIHSA.
IMO the trouble is not so much with the text but with the somewhat
misleading notion of "predicate position". (We had some discussion of the
so-called predicate position in January 2001). I would say that the crucial
point for analysis is the gender, case and number of the participle plus the
context, not the position nor whether it is preceded by an article nor
whether the referent is the subject. And you are quite right that the
participle modifies the noun GUNAIKOS which is clear from the case and
gender. In English you might possibly say "the testifying woman", but then
you cannot add the content clause. It would be quite all right to use a
relative clause since a relative clause in English does the same job of
modifying a noun. KJV has: "the saying of the woman, which testified". NASB
has: "the word of the woman who testified". NET has "report of the woman who
testified". The NET has a note which says: Grk: "When she testified", but I
would say that note is probably caused by the same rather dubious notion of
"predicate position." Whether the article is present or not is more likely
related to the degree of definiteness or focus ("that one who was
testifying"). I am not saying that "as she testified" or "when she
testified" would be wrong translations, but rather alternatives that focus
on an aspect which I don't think has the same focus in the Greek text. To
render the present tense aspect, I might prefer "who was testifying" or even
"who went around testifying", but I am not a native speaker of English.
Some other examples:
Mt 1:22 DIA TOU PROFHTOU LEGONTOS
Mt 9:23 TON OCLON QURUBOUMENON
Mrk 5:36 TON LOGON LALOUMENON
Mrk 7:30 hEURON TO PAIDION BEBLHMENON
John 1:36 EMBLEYAS TWi IHSOU PERIPATOUNTI LEGEI
etc
This construction is especially common after words of perception or saying
as they are in English: John saw Peter coming down the street. (Where
"coming" modifies Peter, not John).
Iver Larsen
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